"...not as vocabulary, not as syntax, not even as structure, but as a principle and a presence." -John Berger

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Galway Kinnell

When One has Lived a Long Time Alone

When one has lived a long time alone,one refrains from swatting the flyand lets him go, and one hesitates to strikethe mosquito, though more than willing to slapthe flesh under her, and one lifts the toadfrom the pit too deep to hop out ofand carries him to the grass, without mindingthe poisoned urine he slicks his body with,and one envelops, in a towel, the swiftwho fell down the chimney and knocks herselfagainst window glass and releases her outsideand watches her fly free, a life line flung at reality,when one has lived a ling time alone.

I like the poem's reverence and particularity. In 1981, I heard Galway Kinnell read at the American Academy of Arts and Letter annual event. That year, John Cheever was the MC. Others there: Eudora Welty, Larry Woiwode, William Maxwell (to whom Mr. Woiwode introduced me, unworthy me), Tom Wolfe, et alia. For my recent birthday, I received two requested books of poetry, one by Jean Valentine and another by Eamon Grennan ("The Quick of It.").